In this talk I would like to discuss the process I went through in replacing a research file server's OS from Linux to FreeBSD and that of its backup system. Initially, the system was hosting a custom 32bit Gentoo Linux instance and was able to host approximately 2.5TB of data over two file systems backed by a RAID-5 software RAID implementation. The solution I implemented allowed me to leverage all the installed disks as one large ZFSv2 data volume by booting the system as a diskless FreeBSD system. I then utilized istgt (an iSCSI target software package) to offer a large disk to one of the group's 64bit Gentoo Linux compute nodes whereby I could then launch autofs and racoon services. I would like to present this material to the BSDCan attendees to share my experience with others and to show that others can accomplish the same task without spending a large amount of money on proprietary software.